UNITE DUnited Nations

It is often said that if we did not have the United Nations, it would
have to be invented, but what exactly is it and what does it do? And
what authority does it have?

The United Nations (UN) was established in 1945, at the end of the
Second World War. At that time 51 countries were members of the
organisation, but that number has now grown to 189 (nearly all of
the countries in the world), known as 'Member States'.The
organisation is based in New York.

When they join the UN, all Member States agree to accept an
international agreement called the UN Charter. This document
contains the aims and beliefs of the UN, the way that it is organised
and the standards of behaviour that are expected of its members.
The Charter states that the four main objectives of the UN are:

1 to maintain international peace and security

2 to develop friendly relations between countries

3 to co-operate in solving international problems and in promoting

respect for human rights

4 to be a centre for harmonising the actions of nations.

So how is it all organised?

Nowadays five main bodies do the work of the United Nations.

The General Assembly is a sort of international parliament.

Representatives of all the Member States meet to discuss the
world's problems, what should be done about them, and the
administration of the whole United Nations Organisation. The
General Assembly meets at least once a year (in September) - or
more often if there are serious problems to discuss. Each Member
State has one vote in any decision and important decisions can only
be taken with the agreement of two thirds of the representatives.
The Assembly's decisions are recommendations - a government
can't be forced to do what the Assembly says, but these
recommendations are powerful because they represent world
opinion on any particular issue.

The Security Council is the part of the UN which is responsible for

international peace and security. There are 15 members of the
Security Council. Five members are permanent (The Russian
Federation, The United Kingdom, The United States, France and
China) and the other 10 members are elected by the General
Assembly for a period of two years. At the moment, the temporary
members are Mauritius, Mexico, Norway, Singapore, The Syrian
Arab Republic, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Colombia, Guinea and Ireland.
Each member has one vote. Important decisions can only be made
if there are nine votes in favour, and this must include the votes of
each one of the five permanent members. The Security Council is
the only part of the UN that can force Member States to accept its
decisions or 'resolutions'. If a Member State does not accept a
resolution then the UN will first try to solve the problem in a
peaceful way. However, if the situation continues it can agree to
military action against the government involved.

The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) is the part of the

UN which co-ordinates the work of all the UN agencies,
commissions and programmes operating all over the world. All of
these together are known as 'The United Nations Family of
Organisations'. This includes organisations such as The United
Nations Children's Fund, (UNICEF) , The United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) both based in Paris,
France, and The World Health Organization, (WHO) based in
Geneva, Switzerland. ECOSOC covers all the UN work in areas such
as economic and social progress, health, culture, education, human
rights, crime, outer space, the environment, and many more. The
Council has 54 members elected by the General Assembly for
periods of three years.

The International Court of Justice, based in The Hague,

Netherlands, is the UN court. It started in 1946. The 15 judges
(who must all be of different nationalities) are elected by the
General Assembly and the Security Council. The court makes
decisions about disputes between countries according to
international law, and also gives legal opinions to the General
Assembly and Security Council when necessary. Member States
can't be forced to take part in Court of Justice investigations but if
they do agree to participate they must accept the Court's final
decision.

The Secretariat does all of the day-to-day administration of the

UN Organisation. Nearly 9,000 people of many different
nationalities work in this section in offices all over the world. The
head of the Secretariat is the Secretary-General, who is also the
'public face' of the UN. The current Secretary-General is Kofi Annan
from Ghana. The Secretary-General is a highly respected world
figure.

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Your turn
What do you think of this article? Do you agree with what it says?

Your texts

Mélissa writes “This article shows us the institutions of the United

Nations. However, in fact, we see that the first aim of this
organization, peace and security, has not been reached. Countries
are still at war (for example in Darfour) and people are still dying
from starvation ...
For me, this organization that the five permanent members wanted
in 1945, after the Second World War, is a pious wish!”

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Giovanni writes “I don’t completely agree with Nur. It’s true that
the UNO has not enough power to realize its purposes, but I don’t
think that it’s under the control of the US. Kofi Annan has often
criticized the politics of the US; furthermore, China and Russian are
permanent members of the Security Council, and those States are
absolutely against the politics of the US … I really think that, at the
moment, in the most important questions – first of all peace – the
UNO is an organization which often operates against the politics of
the US. In fact, the attack against Iraq was not established or
supported by the UNO.”

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Nur writes “This article was based on general information about the
UNO, which can be better for children, but I think the UN is itself
not an independent organization, because it has no power to do its
job. The UN seems to me as an instrument in the hands of great
powers, particularly the US. But to me it does not make any sense
what the UN is.”

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Maria writes “The article is easy to understand and explains in a

few words the origin of the UN and its principals functions.
However, it could be interesting to explain and give examples of
their activities and results. Since 1945, which have been the most
important and successful?”

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BuiDuyQuang writes “The UN is very good for children. But it

doesn’t have enough respect for many countries. UNESCO is very
useful for people. They can know about famous places if they want
to visit. My country has join the WHO in November. I think the UN
can make peace between country and country. And help the poor.
We can know the UN is the organization of the world.”

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Sana M. Kadim writes "In my opinion the Security Council does

nothing, since they cannot take any action without the agreement
of the five main members. Mostly one of those is sharing one of the
security problems which happen all over the world."

The untied nations

It was the house at the end of the street; the one where nobody
wanted to live. The landlord who owned the house always worried
about it. He wanted to rent the house, but nobody wanted to live
there. It was at the wrong end of the street, people said. It was too
dark, they said. It was too damp. The rooms are too small. It’s in
the wrong part of the city. That’s what all the people said when they
came to look at the old house at the end of the street. Nobody
wanted to rent the house; nobody wanted to live in the wrong part
of the city.

The landlord thought about what to do. It was easier to rent flats,
he thought, so he turned the big old house into small flats. Seeing
as people from the city didn’t want to live there, the landlord asked
people from outside the city to live there. His idea was a success -
soon, people came to live in the big old house. Two Polish girls,
Agnieska and Magda came to live in the small flat on the ground
floor. A French woman called Elodie came to live in the big flat on
the top floor. Her boyfriend, who came from Morocco and was called
Mourad came to live with her. An Australian boy called Hugh moved
into one of the flats on the second floor, but he didn’t work (he was
an artist and spent all of his days painting, but he didn’t sell any of
his paintings so he didn’t have much money) so soon he asked a
friend of his, a German guy called Knut to move in with him and
help him pay the rent. (Knut was an artist too, and sometimes Knut
sold a painting, so he had some money, at least). A man from
Zimbabwe called Dave moved into the other flat. He was waiting for
his wife and son to get their visas so they could come and live with
him.

All these people didn’t mind that the house was at the wrong end of
the street, it was no problem for them that it was a bit too dark,
they didn’t care that there was no garden, nor that the rooms were
too small. The fact that the house was in the wrong part of the city
meant nothing to them. They liked living in the big old house which
was now a big block of small flats. It was cheap, they said. They
didn’t like the city where nobody had made them feel welcome.
They liked living in the big old house where everybody came from
somewhere else, and where, soon enough, everyone became
friends.

Hugh and Knut invited the other people to come and look at their
paintings, and everybody said they liked them a lot, but nobody
bought them. Elodie and Mourad decided to cook a big meal for
everybody in the house. They made a mixture of French and
Moroccan food, which everybody thought was delicious. Dave
showed everyone pictures of his wife and his son, and Agnieska
offered to help him try and get visas for them so they could come
and live in the big house too.
For a while, it was great. Everybody was very happy. “We should
call this house ‘The unofficial United Nations’” they joked.

However, things changed. After a while, everybody got fed up of

the smells of Elodie and Mourad’s cooking coming from upstairs.
“Everything smells of garlic!” they compained. “The whole house
smells of garlic!”

After a while, everybody got fed up of the loud music that Hugh and
Knut always had on while they were working. “There’s never any
peace or quiet in this building!” they complained. “Those two lazy
artists just sit around listening to loud music all the time!”

After a while, Agnieska and Magda stopped being friendly with the
other people in the building, and invited lots of their own Polish
friends over to their flat on the ground floor. They had parties that
finished very late at night. They drank lots of vodka and made a lot
of noise. Soon, the other people in the building were complaining.
“We can’t sleep at night!” they said. “There’s always too much noise
from the Polish parties!”

Dave felt very sad about the situation. He remembered the time
when they were the unofficial United Nations. He had liked it. He
thought that he had found friends and people who could help him at
a time when he was on his own, far away from his family. Dave
wanted to change the situation. He decided to do something about
it. Dave decided to have a meeting. He told everybody who lived in
the building to come and meet in his flat. “We need to talk about
our problems!”. Fortunately, everyone agreed.

So Dave from Zimbabwe sat down next to Knut from Germany who
sat next to Hugh from Australia who sat next to Elodie from France
who sat next to Mourad from Morocco who sat next to Agnieska and
Magda from Poland.
“What are we going to do?” asked Dave. “We used to be friends,
and now we’re all arguing all the time!”
Everyone started to shout.
“It’s the Polish parties all night!”
“It’s the noisy music all day!”
“It’s the smell of garlic all day and all night!”
“Wait! Wait! Wait!” shouted Dave, shouting even louder than all the
other people. “Please be quiet! We have to work together to solve
our problems. If we can’t work together, then we will all be alone
forever.”
Everyone was very quiet. They all knew that Dave was right.
“So...here is my suggestion. Agnieska and Magda – no more than
one party a month. And you have to invite us all! Elodie, Mourad -
please put less garlic in your food! And invite us to dinner more
often! Knut and Hugh – please buy some headphones.”
Everybody was still silent.
“I think we need to vote on these issues” said Dave. “Everybody
who thinks that Agnieska and Magda should agree, raise your
hands.” Five people raised their hands. “Motion carried!” said Dave.
“Everyone who thinks that Elodie and Mourad should take it easy on
the garlic and invite us to dinner more often, raise your hands!”
Five hands raised. “Motion carried!” said Dave.
“Everybody who thinks that Knut and Hugh should buy some
headphones, raise your hands!” Five hands went up. “Motion
carried!”
“And everybody who thinks Dave should be our leader, raise your
hands!” shouted Elodie. Six hands went up.
“Congratulations Dave!”, said Elodie, “You are the first leader of the
Untied Nations